A charity aimed at tackling obesity says new stricter nutritional guidelines for school meals do not go far enough, and is calling for schools to be told how many times a week they can serve pudding.

Obesity Action Scotland made its comments in response to the Scottish government consultation on the proposed new nutritional requirements for food and drink in schools, which closed last week.

Tes Scotland revealed earlier this year that schools were still serving everything from deep-fried food and plates of chips to sugar-laden carrot cake, despite the current guidelines. In the 340 inspections since 2012 which have also examined food quality - from snacks in tuck shops to packed lunches - nutritional standards have not been met in 172 cases.

Now the Scottish government is looking to introduce tougher rules for schools meals.

However, Obesity Action Scotland said that daily free-sugar intake “remains potentially high” even under the new guidelines, and children making the most unhealthy menu choices would have to consume no sugar outside of school to meet dietary recommendations.

The charity also told the government that it was concerned that the inclusion of “sugar-free drinks” in the list of acceptable beverages could mark the return of fizzy drinks to Scottish schools.

These drinks - which it said were bad for teeth and normalised “a very sweet taste” - were in danger of making a comeback at the same time as the new guidelines were recommending the removal of fruit juice and smoothies because of their “high free-sugar content”, the charity added.

School meals ‘shouldn’t be a barrier to healthy eating’

Obesity Action Scotland said: “We are very concerned that sugar-free drinks (excluding energy drinks, so those with high caffeine content of over 150mg/l) are suggested to be returned to secondary schools. This means that any carbonated and artificially sweetened drink, including diet colas, could be available. This is a significant retrograde step at a time when fruit juices (of which 150ml would count towards children’s five-a-day fruit and veg) and other items are being taken off the menus. We would urge you to ensure such drinks are not permitted.”

Free-sugars are the sugars which are added to food and the maximum recommended free-sugar intake is five per cent. For primary school children, this means a maximum of around 23g of free-sugar in a day but the maximum free-sugar intake available over the course of a day, according to the proposed new regulations, is 21.9g.

Obesity Action Scotland added: “This means that to adhere to the current dietary recommendation, a primary school child who had chosen the highest options throughout the day could have virtually no sugar in their food or drink outside of school. Whilst we accept this is a worst-case scenario, we have no clear way of knowing, monitoring or measuring how many children could potentially be in this category. Without clear data, it could be assumed that 100 per cent of children taking school food make the highest choices each day. School food must be a way of enabling children to meet Scottish dietary goals, not a barrier.”

The charity went on to call for puddings, cakes, biscuits and sugary yoghurts to be “minimised on school menus” and for “clear direction” to be given to councils on the number of times per week they could be served. 

Obesity Action Scotland said: “In early 2017 there were 12 authorities still serving puddings five days per week. Food Standards Scotland has made it clear that as a nation we need to reduce our intake of discretionary foods by 50 per cent, and school meals would be the ideal place to demonstrate how to achieve that.”